Month: January 2023
NHL backs down from diversity job fair posting in face of pressure from DeSantis administration
There will be no diversity or inclusion in Florida. Only straight white Christian people will be seen in society or promoted in employment. Those icky others shouldn’t be here or get jobs. Notice that DeathSantis spokes person claimed that discrimination wouldn’t be tolerated in Florida and they would stomp out the woke agenda. I asked myself what discrimination they were talking about, but reading the article it became clear that having a job fair directed to anyone but white straight people was the offence the DeathSantis administration couldn’t tolerate. What is woke that the right hates and works so hard to wipe out? It is respect for other people and other ideas. It is the new politically correct that the right fought against so hard because again it was about respecting other people and other ideas. The right / republicans can not tolerate anything / anyone that is not a clone of themselves. This is a complete regression to before the civil rights laws were passed. This is an open attempt to return or to enforce a white straight in charge society. This is repackaged white supremacy racism. This is the US attempt to create a version of South African Apartheid. Hugs
Hockey league scuttles criteria after administration criticism.The Ron DeSantis administration is able to declare victory over a major sports league, which changed plans for a diversity job fair in South Florida.
Fox News Digital first reported that the National Hockey League has abandoned plans to hold a job fair that would have opened up opportunities to various groups historically marginalized in the United States.
The so-called “Pathway to Hockey Summit,” to be held Feb. 2 in Fort Lauderdale during the NHL’s All-Star Weekend, was originally tailored to “diverse job seekers who are pursuing careers in hockey,” according to a now-deleted LinkedIn post that raised the ire of the DeSantis administration.
“Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the U.S., and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability. Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend,” asserted the previous event description, which drew the ire of a DeSantis spokesperson.
“Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic. We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity,” Bryan Griffin told Fox News Friday.
The revised posting eliminates any reference to ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and military veteran status.
“The Pathway to Hockey Summit is a career event, especially to encourage those that historically have not been exposed to hockey and all who are interested in learning more about career opportunities in the sport.”
The NHL distanced itself from the previous language as “not accurate,” suggesting that the intent was really to reach out to people unfamiliar with hockey.
“The Pathway to Hockey Summit is an informational and networking event designed to encourage all individuals to consider a career in our game – and, in particular, alert those who might not be familiar with hockey to the opportunities it offers,” the NHL spokesperson said.
The NHL seems to have extended its deadline for registration in light of the revised criteria.
Florida’s Voice reported that the original deadline for registration was Friday the 13th, with accepted applicants to be told on Tuesday Jan. 17. The updated posting says that they will now be told a week later, on Jan. 24.
Though the wording has been changed, reminders of the previous job search remain on career boards, such as ones from the University of Southern California and the University of Pennsylvania. These postings still maintain that participants “must … identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability,” or be military veterans.
DeSantis Bullies NHL Into Canceling Diversity Job Fair
Florida Politics reports:
The Ron DeSantis administration is able to declare victory over a major sports league, which changed plans for a diversity job fair in South Florida. The NHL has abandoned plans to hold a job fair that would have opened up opportunities to various groups historically marginalized in the United States.
The so-called “Pathway to Hockey Summit,” to be held Feb. 2 in Fort Lauderdale during the NHL’s All-Star Weekend, was originally tailored to “diverse job seekers who are pursuing careers in hockey,” according to a now-deleted LinkedIn post that raised the ire of the DeSantis administration.
The revised posting eliminates any reference to ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, and military veteran status. “We do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked,” said DeSantis spokeman Bryan Griffin to Fox News Digital.
Read the full article. Attention to the job fair was first raised by the far-right Florida’s Voice, which was founded by a January 6 attendee.
It’s “progressive discrimination” to encourage *more* people to apply than the group already mostly doing the applying? Yeah, sure, you poor straight white dudes who can’t compete.
They keep using attacks on “wokeness” in their attempts to create a White Christian nation.
I think Rick Wilson and the author of this NYTs opinion piece are underestimating deathsantis’s ability to overtake trump for the 24 rethug nomination, but they do a good job in pointing out Florida’s shitty economic and political situation: https://twitter.com/TheRick…
Most criticism of Mr. DeSantis’s national electability has been centered around his lack of charisma, which Mr. Trump crystallized by giving him the cumbersome nickname Ron DeSanctimonious. But focusing on personality and style obscures the governor’s real failings: Florida is not a model for the nation, unless the nation wants to become unaffordable for everyone except rich snowbirds.
I have to wonder how many companies & organizations are quietly moving their special meetings events to other locations? Many of them liked having such winter events scheduled in warm weather climes, but with Gov Performative Politics at the helm, how many have decided or will decide to go elsewhere? It would be interesting to see how these stunts have hurt Florida’s entertainment industry.
We’re all literally watching DeSantis take down the republic within the State of FL. At some point it will be obvious what’s going on there to the rest of the nation.
In typical Republican doublespeak, being inclusive is the real discrimination.
“The South Will Rise Again” as granny would say in the Beverly Hillbillies. I always thought that was funny growing up….not so much anymore! White supremacy coupled with christofascism, is alive and growing in America.
Extremists get power as individuals and organizations cave into their bulling. The bully gets stronger and stronger as each individual and organizations cave into their demands and the nation winds up with Trump and then DeSantis as POTUS.
I hear the term woke way more from conservatives than progressives.
Have never understood “woke” as the term these Nazis use to demonize progressives.
To be “awakened” — as in “I woke up” — is a bad thing to them?
To be “aware” is a bad thing?
It is a meaningless term conservatives use to attack and avoid having to make excuses for their insipid racism.
re the “woke goes to die” tweet .. My response:
“Nah, Floriduh is were uneducated neanderthals go for vacation, Christian Nation Indoctrination a la Kim il Jung, and MAGAts wait to die, before eternity takes them to the deepest regions of Satan’s Hell.”
Maybe the NHL needs to pull the hockey summit and All Stars Weekend out of Fort Lauderdale and move it to another location. I know it’s probably too soon at this point with all the planning involved, but I would imagine there are an awful lot of less awful places that would love to host such an event. Can they at least decide they won’t have anything to do with Florida outside of Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers games? And then make sure everyone knows DeSantis is the reason why?
Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?
Republicans know Indoctrination beter then anyone. Freedom not so much.
Iowa official’s wife charged with 52 counts of voter fraud
https://apnews.com/article/iowa-sioux-city-crime-fraud-indictments-5fc1922e45a5f7b9060d02c1876f279a
The wife of a northwestern Iowa county supervisor has been charged with 52 counts of voter fraud after she allegedly filled out and cast absentee ballots in her husband’s unsuccessful race for a Republican nomination to run for Congress in 2020, federal prosecutors said.
Kim Phuong Taylor, 49, was arrested Thursday and pleaded not guilty to the charges before being released on a personal recognizance bond, the Sioux City Journal reported. Her trial is scheduled to begin March 20.
Prosecutors allege in an indictment unsealed Thursday that Phuong Taylor filled out voter registration forms or delivered absentee ballots for people in Sioux City’s Vietnamese community who had limited ability to read and understand English.
She filled out “dozens of voter registrations, absentee ballot request forms, and absentee ballots containing false information,” and delivered absentee ballots, sometimes without the knowledge of the people whose names were used, according to the indictment.
Pat Gill, who is Woodbury County’s auditor and election commissioner, said Thursday that he notified the Iowa secretary of state’s office after someone contacted his office because a ballot had been fraudulently cast in their name in November 2020.
He said his office later provided the FBI with suspected fraudulent registration forms and absentee ballots.
Phuong Taylor committed the fraud before the June 2020 primary, in which her husband, Jeremy Taylor, a former Iowa House member, finished a distant third in the race for the Republican nomination to run for Iowa’s 4th District congressional seat, prosecutors allege. The winner of that race, Randy Feenstra, easily won election to Congress that November.
Prosecutors contend that Phuong Taylor committed the same fraud before the November 2020 election in which Jeremy Taylor was elected to the Woodbury County Board, according to the indictment.
Jeremy Taylor is not named in the indictment and is not accused of wrongdoing.
Kim Phuong Taylor’s attorney, John Greer of Spencer, Iowa, declined to comment on the charges, the Journal reported.
Marjorie Taylor Greene held an anti-trans rally at the Capitol & almost no one came
Marjorie Taylor GreenePhoto: ScreenshotRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) held an anti-trans rally at the Capitol this week. A whopping 12 or so people attended and no major media outlets covered it.
The rally was a veritable who’s who of contemporary transphobic trolls, including members of the book-banning “parents’ rights” group Moms for Liberty; members of the anti-LGBTQ conservative think tank Heritage Foundation; de-transitioned young adult right-wing media darling Chloe Cole; J.K. Rowling fanboy Chris Elston; conspiracy theorist James Lindsay; sexually harassing “comedian” Alex Stein; and of course, Greene herself.
The protestors held signs proclaiming, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers,” “Gender ideology does not belong in schools,” and signs that defined the words “mom” and “dad” as “a human parent who protects kids from gender ideology.”
Greene brought the transphobic sign that she hangs in front of her congressional office which says, “There are two genders: male and female. ‘Trust the science.’” In reality, biology has proven the existence of numerous animals that can change gender and that gender and sex are both more complicated than binaries.
The protestors spent their time taking pictures of each other and then re-tweeting one another’s posts about the protest.
In a tweet tagging many of the protestors, the Heritage Foundation wrote that the demonstrators were “calling out policies that push for minors to have access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-reassignment surgeries.”
This is a lie, of course. No policies are “pushing” minors to undergo gender-affirming treatment, and surgeries aren’t conducted on minors either. The policies the protestors oppose include acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people in schools and ensuring that trans youth have access to life-saving care as well as an equal education.
Right-wing transphobes imagine that LGBTQ+ people and allies, drag queens, and medical professionals all use “gender ideology” to “indoctrinate” and “groom” impressionable young kids into states of “gender confusion” and “rapid onset gender dysphoria” in order to “mutilate” their bodies in profitable surgeries.
However, every major medical and psychological association recognizes that trans youth self-identify consistently, insistently, and persistently from young ages. They also have deemed access to gender-affirming care as necessary for ensuring the emotional and physical well-being of trans youth.
The rhetoric used by these protestors has helped encourage others to issue death threats against gender-affirming medical professionals and educators alike.
Republican lies on air, gets IMMEDIATELY shut down TO HIS FACE
School board meeting descends into chaos during debate about rights for LGBTQ+ students
Why? My dogs that love gravy why would an adult want kids bullied and hurt? Damn why are republicans and the right so hateful? This is to respect and protect students making the classroom a place they can learn without fear. Their push to have a homogenous society where everyone is just the same as them and fit into the mold they insist everyone must be with no diversity or difference from them? They see no beauty in others if they are not clones of themselves. These people are so spiteful they would see kids harmed rather than allow them to be protected. There is a video at the linked site that my security / cookie settings won’t show. Hugs
Idaho State Senator Chris Trakel (R) Speaks out against a proposed policy protecting LGBTQ+ studentsPhoto: ScreenshotAn Idaho school board meeting devolved into chaos on Monday night while a Republican state senator was virulently speaking out against a proposed policy to protect LGBTQ+ students in the district.
The proposed Caldwell School Board policy seeks to prevent discrimination against LGBTQ+ students by, among other things, allowing them to use the locker rooms and bathrooms that align with their lived gender, requiring teachers and other staff to use their preferred names and pronouns, and allowing same-sex couples to attend dances and other activities.
The room was reportedly filled to capacity that night, with several others standing up to speak about the policy before state Sen. Chris Trakel (R) took the podium.
According to KTVB, most speakers were there to advocate against implementing the policy, but three students spoke out in favor of it.
Before Trakel got up to speak, the meeting was almost recessed and adjourned several times as people continued to get rowdy during the public comment period.
Trakel’s speech is immediately hostile. Video of the meeting shows him lambasting the board for allegedly violating Idaho state law based on other proposed curriculum policies and for violating the meeting attendees’ First Amendment rights by not allowing them to criticize school district employees.
“Now, to get on to the exciting part,” he said before attacking the proposed LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy and saying he was there under his official position as a state senator.
“You, under Idaho law, are required to maintain the morals and health of all the students… You are going to put all of their moral health and safety at risk, and like I told you before you will face litigation. You call that a threat, I’m telling you that is what will happen. It has already happened in several states and there’s already been rulings on it.”
“Before you waste taxpayer money, before you put a kid in harm’s way, you better throw this policy out and not even consider it.”
At that point, the board chair, Marisela Pesina, turned to a fellow board member and whispered something. Trakel snapped, “I’ve got the floor. Ms. Pesina will you please listen to me.”
“Sir,” Pesina responded tersely. And that is when the chaos began.
Trakel started yelling, “You claim you want people to follow the rules, but you break the rules left and right.”
As his rant continued, Pesina called a recess, at which point more meeting attendees began yelling along with Trakel. The board then voted to adjourn the meeting early, which only caused more anger in the audience.
People began screaming “cowards” and “unethical.” Many could be heard threatening to recall board members.
“Boo on all of you! This is absurd!” one person shouts.
“It was disappointing that some attending refused to follow the rules, which prevented others from sharing their thoughts with the Board,” Caldwell School District communications director Jessica Watts told Idaho EdNews. “Caldwell School District welcomes and encourages feedback on its work. What we do not welcome are those who refuse to follow the steps necessary for a civil, courteous, and respectful environment for that feedback to occur.”
There is a video at the link.
Policy 3281 Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation v4 01062023
Students protest Pride flag ban at Massachusetts high school
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/01/students-protest-pride-flag-ban-massachusetts-high-school/
The young people of today don’t want to live in the 1950s. The adults trying to force that need to understand they cannot keep the country locked in a static bubble of out of date social morality. That is the way of the Taliban, that is the way of vice police. The US needs to join the rest of the developed advanced nations and embrace diversity and LGBTQ+ people. This is the fascist right view that if they can ban the opposition symbols it is easier to ban the opposition. Notice the teachers that refused to ignore the rights of gay students were threatened with more punishment. Teachers were told not to tell the students about the policy because that is how the authoritarians work, hide the attacks on minorities. There is no neutral in civil rights. One side wants to deny them and the other side is people who want their equality. The idea that one side gets to deny others their space to stay comfortable is wrong and not acceptable. I just posted how a 13 year old boy in France felt so threatened and had no safe space at school he killed himself. Stop the bigotry. Hugs
Photo: ShutterstockA high school in Stoughton, Massachusetts was the site of a protest Tuesday night over the school’s ban on what it calls “political” flags and posters in classrooms.
The action was organized by Stoughton High School senior Olivia Tran, who was suspended last week for leading a student demonstration against the policy during class hours. Tran draped a large Pride flag outside the school’s administration office in that protest and the group refused to return to class.
Tuesday’s demonstration took place in and outside a previously scheduled school committee meeting, where Tran encouraged students and residents of the school district to “advocate for the disenfranchised.”
School Superintendent Thomas Raab instituted the speech policy in September, when he informed teachers that classrooms were to be considered “neutral” spaces. Flags with “political” messages, including Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, would be banned, and teachers who failed to comply would be subject to “disciplinary action.”
Three teachers at the school initially balked at the request and were called to the principal’s office, according to local news outlet The Enterprise. After receiving a letter threatening “further disciplinary action,” each complied.
The ban originally applied only to flags. Now all material deemed “political” is forbidden.
Teachers were advised not to discuss the policy with students, according to staff, who spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal.
Dozens of students and parents turned out for the demonstration and meeting.
Superintendent Raab addressed the group before public comment.
“It is important to have allies at school,” he said. “We have a fully trained, educated staff and we have provided teachers with lanyards and progressive ally stickers.”
“But we must keep classrooms neutral,” he said. “We can’t pick and choose which flags are appropriate or not.”
While committee members generally agreed with the superintendent’s policy, they faulted Raab for a lack of communication.
“Thank you for acknowledging the community’s concerns and for being a part of discussions with us,” committee chair Sandra Groppi told Raab. “It is important, when implementing new policies, to do things slowly and take everything into consideration.”
Vice-chair Katie Pina-Enokian added: “This community is very strong, so it would’ve been important to discuss before.”
Public comment included a rabbi who cited Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests as reasons to ban political speech in classrooms and a local parent who advocated for the American flag: “It’s for everyone.”
Olivia Tran, who spoke with her mother by her side, was cheered on by fellow students.
“I am bisexual, and I am an Asian American girl,” Tran said.
“There is no ‘neutral.’ Give us the justice we deserve.”
13-year-old boy died by suicide after homophobic bullying at school
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/01/13-year-old-boy-died-suicide-homophobic-bullying-school/
This was in France, but it is what the republicans and the right want here in the US for gay or trans kids. I admire the bravery of this child to try to stand up to the abuse as long as he could. I hate that adults cannot seem to understand how these bullying attacks and insults eat deep into children. The leadership in Florida seems to want to make this a common thing, drive the gay kids underground, make the too scared to be openly gay. But while some gay kids can pass others can’t. Some kids just cannot act in a way society says is straight, and they never should have to do so. They should be allowed to be who they are. Hugs
LucasPhoto: Family photoA 13-year-old boy in France named Lucas died by suicide last Saturday, January 7 after facing anti-LGBTQ+ bullying at school. People close to his family say that the school did little to stop the bullying.
The student at the Louis Armand de Golbey middle school in the Vosges department was out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, the French magazine Têtu reports.
“He was constantly harassed for the way he dressed, his mannerisms, his presence,” said Stéphanie, a family friend. “He didn’t hide himself and that bothered some people.”
She said Lucas was “always pleasant, caring, spontaneous, full of dreams and a life.”
Psychological help has been made available for students and teachers at the middle school who need it.
“There’s really a lot of emotion from adults who didn’t see anything, didn’t see that Lucas wasn’t doing well recently,” said Valérie Dautresme in a radio interview. She’s the academic services director for the National Education system in the Vosges department.
Dautresme said that Lucas and his mother reported homophobic insults since the start of the school year in September at a parent-teacher meeting.
“For us at this point, the situation had been resolved,” she claimed. “Lucas said that things were working themselves out and that he was no longer being insulted at school.”
Stéphanie contradicted Dautresme’s claim that the matter had been “resolved” and said that Lucas complained “again and again and again. His mother asked for help several times. The school, where he spent three-quarters of his time, didn’t react.”
She said that the family is going to file a formal complaint. The family’s lawyer, Catherine Faivre, said, “There is a whole chain of people with responsibilities who can be investigated and spoken with if, in effect, the elements of an infraction can be constituted.”
Louis Armand de Golbey middle school has been taking part in a national program to fight bullying in schools under the direction of National Education and Youth of France Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. Staff members were to be trained in how to spot bullying and in a protocol on what to do if someone faces bullying.
A fundraiser was opened online to help the family that raised 7554 € ($8200). Lucas’s funeral is planned for Saturday, January 14. A vigil is being planned but the date has not yet been announced.
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Some questions about the stupid things that people say without thinking
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/01/questions-stupid-things-people-say-without-thinking/
Photo: ShutterstockThe thought processes of many young children are pretty remarkable before they are thoroughly socialized to incorporate society’s conventions. At the age of five or six, for example, with innocence and honesty, they maintain clear critical faculties before these tend to fade at each consecutive level of socialization in acceptance of dominant hegemonic ideologies.
I remember my five-year-old self asking my mother: “Mommy, how can people be beside themselves? That’s kinda creepy. Is it magic?”
My mother explained to me that “it is just an expression. It doesn’t mean that people are actually beside themselves. It means that people are upset when they say it.”
“So why don’t people just say they are upset?” I responded.
All these many decades later, I am grateful that a specific part of my childhood mind and critical consciousness have remained with me. This has allowed me to expose things merely taken for granted by many people and to make the invisible known, at least to myself.
Placing myself in those earlier times, I can imagine some of the critical questions my five-year-old self might ask today:
- Why does “mankind” represent all people, but “womankind” only represents women?
- Why is it called “suits” for men, but “pant suits” for women?
- Why is it acceptable for men to wear kilts or kaftans but not skirts or dresses?
- Why is it acceptable for young males to play with action figures but not to play with dolls?
- Why are males still socially thought of as the stronger sex but women as the weaker sex?
- Why is it acceptable for men to go naked to the waist in public but not for women?
- Why is it permissible for women to dress in formal wear with uncovered shoulders and breast cleavage showing, but men are usually covered to the neck?
- Why is it generally appropriate for men to wear ties and dress in drab-colored clothing while women can dress in brightly-colored outfits?
- Why do women’s clothing and accessories generally cost significantly more than men’s for basically the same thing using the same materials?
- Why do most people find it necessary to know, for sure, the sex assigned to people at birth that they meet, and they feel uncomfortable if they are uncertain?
- Why do heterosexuals have “lives,” but LGBTQ+ people have “lifestyles?”
- Why is “heterosexual” seen in the public imagination as representing love, but “homosexual” and “bisexual” are seen as representing sex?
- Why do some clothing brands still market one of their color choices as “nude” or as “flesh,” representing shades of beige?
- Why do some people warn of Islamic Sharia law while simultaneously imposing their form of Christian law through legislation and judicial decisions?
- Why are the Jewish Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Quran considered as the “Words of God” within their respective religions, but Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, Ancient Egyptian, and all Indigenous religions and spiritual systems considered as myths or superstitions?
- Who gets to decide what is normal and natural?
- Why do people generally construct reality and think in terms of binaries or in only two choices when the universe presents an unlimited and diverse array of marvels to behold?
Scottie's Playtime 